Uncle John’s True Crime (33 page)

But the Brits kept the pressure on. In 1981 he was actually kidnapped by bounty hunters and loaded into a sack on a yacht bound for England. He was freed in Barbados and went straight back to Rio.

LONDON CALLING

By 2000, Biggs was 71 years old and wanted to go home to England. He hoped his age and poor health would keep him out of prison, but officers were waiting when his plane landed at Heathrow Airport, and they took him straight to his prison cell. Biggs’s fans were incensed at the inhumane treatment; his critics wanted him to rot in there. After several rejected appeals, Biggs was finally freed in 2009 after a stroke had left him unable to move or speak. But the old man, reputed to be “dead within days,” thumbed his nose one more time at Scotland Yard. How? He got better. As of 2011, Ronnie Biggs, 82, is still kicking. “There’s a difference between criminals and crooks,” he says. “Crooks steal. Criminals blow some bloke’s brains out. I was a crook.”

The last stagecoach robbery in America took place in Nevada (1916)
.

Our introduction to this Japanese crime syndicate (
page 116
) gave you an overview of what they’re all about. Now we take you on the inside
.

J
OINING UP

• Becoming a Yakuza member can be as easy as walking into one of their offices and asking for an application. Because it’s not illegal to be Yakuza, they’re quite open about their existence—each office has a wooden sign out front that displays the name of the family. Members even carry business cards. Some families publish their own magazines, advertise, march in parades, and send recruiters to schools and prisons.

• There are no requirements to become a member—well, except one: You must be male. The only woman recognized by a Yakuza family is the boss’s wife, the
ane-san
, which means “older sister.” Though she does not participate in criminal activity, all members must show her the same respect they show the boss.

• Yakuza families adopt young men from all walks of life, but most are the disenfranchised: orphans, small-time criminals, and refugees. Because of a law passed in 1992, leaders are legally responsible for the criminal actions of their recruits. Therefore, an entrant may be required to pass a written exam to prove his knowledge of the Yakuza and the law. Once he passes the test, the
obun
is assigned to his
oyabun
, his new father.

SHEDDING THE PAST

• In an initiation ceremony, the obun and oyabun share cups of
sake
(rice wine) mixed with salt and fish scales, and the obun promises his unquestioning loyalty to the Yakuza family.

• Next he begins work on his full-body tattoo, which will depict clan symbols and traditional Japanese scenes such as samurai warriors. A member will wear these tattoos as symbols of a Yakuza’s outsider status and his lifelong pledge to the clan.

ASCENDING THE RUNGS

• The Yakuza offer many exciting criminal opportunities, including gambling, smuggling, money laundering, extortion, narcotics, prostitution, and gunrunning. Like any pyramid scheme, those at the top make the
most money. One way to move up is to recruit more “children,” essentially building your own gang, until you become a local boss. One can also advance by making money for the family.

While she was serving time in prison in 2005, Martha Stewart became a billionaire
.

• The most profitable and least dangerous way to do this is via corporate extortion; simply find some dirt on an executive and threaten to expose it unless the company offers a payoff. In Japan, embarrassment and shame are often feared as much as physical pain, so the demands are usually met.

• Japan is a society where directness is considered rude, and even gangsters make their threats in a polite manner. One way to make a threat: Pose as a magazine publisher and then promise to print a favorable review about the company in exchange for shares. Then, as a shareholder, the company can be extorted from the inside.

• However, these kinds of tasks are reserved for experienced members. The most common lament of the young Yakuza is boredom. New recruits typically spend their first few years training and performing menial tasks like answering phones, serving guests, cooking, and cleaning.

YAKUZA AND THE LAW

• In the United States, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) makes it illegal to belong to an ongoing criminal organization. There are no similar laws in Japan, allowing criminals to legally form large, well-structured gangs. So, while members can be arrested for crimes, they cannot be arrested simply because they are a Yakuza

• There are no statutes in Japan that prohibit money laundering, making the Yakuza very financially successful. And with financial success comes power. As such, organized crime has been influencing politics in Japan since World War II. Even now, several prominent politicians have family members who bear Yakuza tattoos.

• Relations between Japanese authorities and the Yakuza are complex. Some of the police admire the Yakuza’s code of chivalry. As long as the gangsters are not too disruptive, the police mostly leave them alone. In return, the mobsters occasionally turn in a member of a gang to help the cops “solve” a case. At the same time, however, the Yakuza are indeed criminals, and always try to stay one step ahead of the law.

YAKUZA AND THE PEOPLE

• For the most part, the Japanese public tolerates the Yakuza. Some people
have even come to appreciate them. For example, after a car accident, instead of hiring lawyers, one party might hire a Yakuza member called a
jiken-ya
(incident specialist) to propose a settlement. Usually an agreement is made without threats or violence.

Sing Sing prison is up the Hudson River from New York City, hence the phrase “up the river.”

• The Yakuza also try to play up their image as champions of the downtrodden and the outcast, providing havens for
burakumin
(a segregated group of “untouchables”). They also provide a home for high-school dropouts unable to succeed in Japan’s highly competitive educational system. By “adopting” the rougher elements of society, the Yakuza help to discipline criminals and minimize violent acts against ordinary people. Ironically, the Yakuza have helped to keep Japan’s crime rate one of the lowest in the world.

• Yakuza members are often employed by the community as fund raisers, bodyguards, and campaign workers. Every so often, these “Robin Hoods” do good deeds: After the devastating earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, many Yakuza families provided food, shelter, and trucks to clean up the debris. A few months later, however, Japanese officials complained that the gangsters had bullied their way into being awarded contracts to finish the cleanup effort. They are outlaws, after all, and because of that, the Yakuza are shunned by mainstream Japanese society.

BAD BOYS

• A crop of younger, more violent criminals are changing the way the Japanese view the Yakuza. Street gangs are taking over. In a recent case in Nagoya, police arrested 19 teenagers for nearly 100 muggings. In another, two of Tokyo’s largest teen gangs went head-to-head in a turf war, and a passerby was stabbed and beaten to death.

• Aging Yakuza members have grown quite dismayed with the decline of moral values and the rise in violence, especially gun-related violence. Many are leaving the organization and snitching on their fellow members. If they can escape, awaiting them are legitimate Japanese employers who openly offer jobs and rehabilitation programs for Yakuza members who wish to renounce their lives of crime.

• The most powerful Yakuza families have started acting less like the Mafia and more like legitimate corporations, moving into mainstream high finance. What does all this mean? The future of the world’s largest crime syndicate is uncertain.

“If your boss says the passing crow is white, you must agree.” —Yakuza proverb

Having an identical twin isn’t always twice as nice
.

T
WINS:
John and Glen Winslow, 38

DOUBLE TROUBLE:
When John Winslow was pulled over in Council Bluffs, Nebraska, in July 2004, he didn’t have his license with him, and he knew he had a misdemeanor warrant for damaging property. So rather than admit who he was, John identified himself as
Glen
Winslow. What John didn’t know at the time was that his twin brother Glen was also wanted by the police—for first-degree sexual assault. When John identified himself as Glen, the police immediately slapped the cuffs on him and hauled him off to jail.

OUTCOME:
John confessed to lying to the police, but they weren’t taking any chances. They held him until a fingerprint check confirmed that he really was John. Then he spent 10 days in jail for the original property damage charge, for not having a driver’s license, and for providing false information to police. A new arrest warrant was issued for Glen; he was taken into custody in Omaha five days later.

TWINS:
Angela and Sharon Statton, 19

DOUBLE TROUBLE:
In April 1997, Angela got into a heated argument with her boyfriend and called the police. When they arrived, the boyfriend lied and said Angela wasn’t Angela, but her sister Sharon... who had a warrant for failure to appear on shoplifting charge. Angela insisted she really
was
Angela, and to prove it she pleaded with the police to drive her to her mother’s house to talk to the real Sharon. Even after talking to the real Sharon, the officers weren’t convinced. They wanted to arrest both sisters but couldn’t because they only had one warrant. In the end, they arrested Angela on Sharon’s warrant.

OUTCOME:
Angela spent four nights in jail before she got her day in court. Then she and Sharon appeared together and convinced the judge that Angela really was who she said she was. “I kept telling people, ‘My name is not Sharon, it’s
Angela
!’” said Angela (we think). “They thought I was playing with them, but I wasn’t. I sat in jail for nothing. I’m just glad I’m out.” Sharon was ordered to reappear at a later date to answer the shoplifting charges, but no word on which of them showed up.

Elvis Presley’s prisoner number in
Jailhouse Rock
: 6239
.

It was the perfect crime—so well planned and executed that all the gang members needed to do to was lie low until the heat cooled down. But could they?

I
N AND OUT

The year was 1950. It was a cold January in Boston. At around 7 p.m. on the 17th, a green 1949 Ford truck pulled up in front of the Prince Street entrance of the Brinks Armored Car garage. Millions of dollars in cash, checks, and money orders were stored inside the building. Seven men emerged from the back of the Ford and walked swiftly to the front door. Each man wore a Navy peacoat, gloves, rubber-soled shoes, and a chauffeur’s cap.

After a series of blinking flashlight signals from a nearby rooftop, one of the men pulled out a key and unlocked the front door. Once inside, each man donned a Captain Marvel Halloween mask and went to work. They walked up the stairs and encountered a second locked door. Another key was produced, and they entered a room where five surprised Brinks employees were counting money. The gang pulled out handguns and quickly subdued the stunned Brinks men. Once their captives were bound and gagged, the masked men began collecting the loot.

With clockwork precision and very little talking, the gang filled their bags with money. Fifteen minutes after their arrival, the robbers—each carrying two full bags—left the building. Six of them got back into the truck and one got into a Ford sedan parked nearby. As they made their getaway, the employees managed to free themselves and call the police. When it was over, $1.2 million in cash and $1.5 million in checks, money orders, and securities were missing. It was the single largest robbery in U.S. history.

URBAN HEROES

The daring crime made front-page news all over the country. And the public was sympathetic with the robbers almost as soon as they heard about it.
Their nonviolent methods and their audacity to take on a company as huge as Brinks made them cult heroes. Comedians and cartoonists joked about it, mocking the huge security company’s apparent lack of security. On his weekly TV variety show, Ed Sullivan announced that he had some very special guests: the Brinks robbers themselves. Seven men wearing Captain Marvel masks walked onstage to thunderous applause. It became more than a passing fad—the press dubbed it the “Crime of the Century.”

About 6,000 American banks are robbed every year
.

COPS
...

The Boston police and Brinks were humiliated. How could seven men so easily walk off with more than $2.7 million? The FBI took over the case and immediately found some good news: word on the street was that the caper had been in the works for months, and informants were naming names. Among the prime suspects: some of Boston’s most notorious petty criminals, such as Anthony Pino, Joseph McGinnis, Stanley Gusciora, and “Specs” O’Keefe—all men known for pulling off similar crimes, although nothing nearly as big. The bad news: they all had alibis. But when a green Ford truck matching witnesses’ descriptions was found in pieces at a dump near where O’Keefe and Gusciora lived, the investigators knew they were hot on the trail. They just needed proof.

...AND ROBBERS

The Feds’ instincts were correct: O’Keefe and Gusciora were two of the key men behind the Brinks job. But what they didn’t know was that it was Anthony Pino, an illegal alien from Italy, who first came up with the idea...back in 1947.

Pino had the savvy to do the job, but he couldn’t do it alone. So he’d called a meeting of some members of the Boston underworld and put together a gang. By the time they were ready to go, there were 11 members: Pino; his associate, liquor store owner Joseph McGinnis; strong-arms O’Keefe and Gusciora, both experienced criminals with reputations for keeping their cool and handling weapons; Pino’s brother-in-law, Vincent Costa, the lookout; Adolph “Jazz” Maffie; Henry Baker; Michael Vincent Geagan; Thomas “Sandy” Richardson; James Faherty; and Joseph Banfield.